TDC’s suitors might be keen to stress their respect for the telecoms target, but it is difficult to overestimate the carrier’s position in the Danes’ collective psyche.

Eleven years after the government sold off its first tranche of shares and seven years since it opened the doors to a liberalised market, TDC remains a quasi-monopoly in its home territory. It has 81 per cent of the fixed-line market, 42 per cent of mobiles and 64 per cent of internet subscriptions, according to the Danish telecoms agency.